482 



CARNIVORES. 



Europe, and ranged as far east as China. At no period, however, was the group 

 represented in the Western Hemisphere. 



The existing species of hyaenas are three in number, all of them being now 

 generally included in the single genus Hycena ; this genus forming the sole repre- 

 sentative of a distinct family. With the exception of the aard-wolf, the nearest 

 relatives of the hyenas are the civets ; but at the present day the two families 

 are markedly distinct, although, as mentioned on p. 479, extinct forms blend the 

 two so closely together that it is almost impossible to say where civets end and 

 hysenas begin. Hyaenas are massively-built animals, with relatively long legs 

 especially the front pair, deep bodies, short and broad heads, and rather short 

 tails; their whole appearance being ungainly in the extreme. Their fur is coarse 



and shaggy, and marked, 

 more or less distinctly, 

 either with irregular 

 vertical stripes or large 

 blackish spots. Their feet 

 have but four toes, on both 

 the front and hind -limbs, 

 and are furnished with 

 stout claws, which are 

 permanently protruded, 

 like those of dogs. 



Such are some of their 

 chief external character- 

 istics; but, in order to 

 understand their full 

 differences from the civet 

 tribe, it is necessary to 

 say something with regard 

 to their teeth. Existing- 

 hyaenas have a total of 

 34 teeth, of which 4 are 

 incisors, j- canines, -|- pre- 



molars, and ]- molars on either side of the jaws. Thus there is but one tooth, 

 which is of small size, behind the flesh-tooth in the upper jaw, while in the lower 

 jaw, as shown in the accompanying figure, the flesh-tooth forms the last of the 

 series. Here, therefore, we have an important difference from the civets, with the 

 single exception of the fossa (p. 449), which is otherwise well distinguished, most 

 of these having two molar teeth behind the upper flesh-tooth, and the whole of them 

 having one molar behind the lower flesh -tooth. This, however, is not all, for, 

 whereas the civet family (always excepting the fossa) have only two lobes to the 

 blade of the upper flesh-tooth (see Fig. on p. 449), in the hyaenas the same tooth (of 

 which a figure is given on p. 353) has a three-lobed blade like that of the cats. Then, 

 again, the lower flesh-tooth, as shown on the left side of the accompanying figure, 

 is also quite unlike that of a civet, and closely resembles that of a cat, the only 

 well-marked difference being the presence of a larger or smaller heel at the hinder 



UPPER AND OUTER VIEWS OP THE HINDER PART OF THE RIGHT HALF OF 

 THE LOWER JAW OF AN EXTINCT HYAENA. 



The tooth on the left side of the figure is the flesh-tooth. (From the 

 Palceontologica Indica.} 



